


Keeping Tracks

by elletromil



Series: Tally of your love [2]
Category: Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-09
Updated: 2017-01-09
Packaged: 2018-09-15 21:58:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9259247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elletromil/pseuds/elletromil
Summary: If one were to look at Merlin’s wrist and arm, they would come to the conclusion he fell in love too easily.They would be wrong.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lady Mephistopheles (Neko_wa)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neko_wa/gifts), [BakaDoll](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BakaDoll/gifts).



> So a happy ending was requested for Merlin after the last story and well, how could I resist writing one? Also there is simply not enough Roxlin story out there, so when it was suggested that he would find his happy ending with her, well, it was only one more reason for me to write it :)

If one were to look at Merlin’s wrist and arm, they would come to the conclusion he fell in love too easily.

They would be wrong.

Merlin, for all that he had never met anyone with as many tally marks as he did, didn’t like that many people. But the people he let himself care about were all exceptional and he had never believed in doing anything half-arsed. Why just love someone, when you could be in love with them?

It wasn’t an unhappy life. None of his marks had ever turned black, but requited love was second to knowing they were all alive and relatively happy. His heart broke whenever one scarred over, but in their line of work it was unavoidable. He consoled himself in knowing that their life hadn’t been wasted, if only because he had been there to love them for a time.

***

He showed Harry his mark once, years after he had gotten it, somewhere among the middle of his forearm. It had never turned black, not that Merlin would want it to.

But he also had too many scars already, he didn’t need to see this line turning into one yet. So Harry would be kind to stop taking stupid risks because one day he wouldn’t wake up in the infirmary, one day he wouldn’t wake up _at all_ , and what would Merlin without him?

Harry hadn’t responded a thing but he had gripped his arm and pressed gentle fingers against his red line.

They had never mentioned it afterward, but every time Harry would wake up to Merlin hovering over him, he would press his finger where he knew the mark was, a gentle reminder that he was still there and that he had not abandon Merlin yet.

***

He was so busy trying not to make the same mistake with Eggsy as he had done with his father, that he realised far too late that he had still fallen in love with a recruit, just not the one he had thought.

Harry, had he been awake and not in a coma like the bloody git he was, would have made fun of him for years for it, but Merlin couldn’t quite bring himself to really mind that he had fallen in love with Roxy.

She was smart, competent, kind, hard-working and beautiful. It was a wonder it had taken him so long before he fell tits over arse for her.

And yes, it wasn’t ideal, but he knew from having had feelings for Lee back then, he wouldn’t let it cloud his judgement, wouldn’t play favourite. He had no doubt she wouldn’t have thanked him for it anyway.

***

The first thing he had done after losing Harry’s signal had been to roll up his sleeve and look at the new scar on his arm where a red line had been for decades.

So when Eggsy got into the cockpit, yelling like a madman that they needed to go to Kentucky because supposedly Harry Hart was still alive because he had the black mark to prove it (and oh, how much hell he’d give Harry for not telling him about this new development later on), he was a bit disbelieving. But at the same time, this was about Harry Hart. The bastard’s only purpose on this earth was to get Merlin's blood pressure up.

“That fucking bastard. I’ll kill him myself this time.” Even as he was saying it, he knew he would do no such thing, if only because the mark was red again among all the scars. He had plenty of red up towards his inner elbow sure, but closer to his wrist, Harry’s had been the last one. He wasn’t ready to give it up yet.

Eggsy didn’t leave the cockpit once he announced they would go to Kentucky and pick up their very own Jesus, all but melting into the other seat. He was still looking at his arm and the many marks, but he wasn’t saying anything just smiling tiredly, on the verge of falling asleep.

Merlin had known from the start that he was doomed to fall in love with this Unwin too, so he wasn’t surprised to see a new red mark appearing just above Roxy’s just as Eggsy was loosing his battle against sleep.

If Lady Luck kept on smiling at him, they would both prove as stubborn as Harry when it came to not dying.

***

Merlin never played favourite with recruits, but he did do so with agents.

He had always worked faster on new prototypes for Harry, if only to see him light up like a little kid at Christmas every time he got to test them out. He would never get angry at Percival whenever he was late for his paperwork, if only because it meant he had fallen asleep at his desk and he deserved that rest. He had let James play out his pranks even if he saw them coming from miles away, if only because it meant he had gotten over whatever funk he fell into after a mission. He had brought tea to Lamorak every afternoon the old spy had spent at the manor, if only because he got fantastic stories in return.

Now he let Harry complain his ear off about the amount of paperwork he needed to sign on as Arthur and let him get away with running off to the shooting grounds when he couldn’t stand it anymore. He still let Percival hand in his paperwork late and he had left a warm blanket on the back of his office chair because he had heard the Knight complain on how drafty the mansion was becoming. He considered Eggsy’s ridiculous suggestion for new gadgets and let him steal his tablet away so he could look up the blueprints of the prototypes. He was having way too much fun coming up with new spied-up accessories for Roxy and was always available to listen to her input, never letting her deal with the minions.

He let her drag him to the kitchen for a short break, let her feed him a sandwich and switch his coffee to decaf after his third mug of the day. He would look after her dog when she was away on mission, bring her books whenever she stayed in the infirmary. He would even, on occasion, be convinced to read her one of her Eldritch horror story out loud, just because she would fall asleep with a smile on her lips.

He would meet her on the tarmac to welcome her home even when he wasn’t needed for her debrief. He would let her… lower him down so she could press a chaste kiss on his lips?

Roxy let him go as quickly as she had grabbed him, but she only seemed amused by his floundering, rolling up her sleeve to display a black mark on her wrist.

He stared at it without understanding and she huffed in exasperation, before taking a hold of his arm and rolling up his sleeve until her mark was revealed, the familiar red now black.

“I know it’s not what you’re used to, but I figured we could see where this could take us?” She seemed unsure now, so unlike the confident woman he loved that there was only one way he could answer.

He cupped her cheeks in his hands and brought their lips together again.

“I’d like that,” he whispered when they broke the kiss a small eternity later.


End file.
